The new Netflix documentary Daughters, directed by Angela Patton and Natalie Rae, offers a perfect example of how a subject can be enhanced by sensitive, artful filmmaking.
The initiative was started in Richmond, Virginia, by co-director Patton herself back in 2012 and has expanded since.
All of these are worthy ideas, and they’d probably be enough to make Daughters an admirable, ennobling picture.
Patton and Rae spend much of Daughters’s run time following a handful of the girls and their fathers as they prepare for the dance.
Daughters could have easily been a standard-process doc, about the logistics and bureaucracy involved in organizing something like this, and it might have been interesting as such.
The recent Netflix documentary Daughters, which was co-directed by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton, is a wonderful illustration of how delicate, creative filming can elevate a subject. It centers on the planning of a father-daughter dance between prisoners at a D.C. prison. prison and their girls, who are between the ages of five and mid-teens. Co-director Patton launched the initiative in 2012 in Richmond, Virginia, and it has since grown. The aim of this initiative is to offer a unique chance for girls who haven’t seen their imprisoned fathers in years to have face-to-face interactions. The filmmakers have stated that one of their objectives in creating the movie is to highlight the reality that many prisons have eliminated “touch visits,” limiting inmate-family interactions to phone conversations or video calls. Daughters would undoubtedly be an admirable, uplifting picture if all of these admirable ideas were implemented. However, the way the filmmakers have put their material together and shot it elevates the film to a new level.
Patton and Rae devote a significant portion of Daughters’ runtime to observing select girls and their dads as they get ready for the dance. The qualified prisoners must first finish a ten-week course in which they meet with life coach Chad Morris, who assists them in getting ready for what is sure to be an incredibly painful and surreal experience. He alerts them, saying, “It’s going to be an emotional roller coaster.”. Since you’ll be feeling a wide range of emotions as the clock approaches the conclusion, you won’t be disappointed when that dance occurs. The girls, meanwhile, open up to the camera about their conflicting emotions toward their fathers, including feelings of hopelessness, deprivation, and abandonment. Due to a pledge she made to her father Keith, five years old Aubrey, who claims to be the smartest child in her class, has adorned the walls of her home with certificates she has received from her school. She spends her days memorizing her multiplication tables; it’s endearing, but it’s also a way for her to try to understand the calculating nature of jail terms, parole, and the potential return date for her father. Ja’Ana, 11, doesn’t quite know what to think of her father Frank, who wasn’t even in her life for the first few years. Their subsequent exchanges, in which the father is as silent and uneasy as his uncertain daughter, are some of the most painful in the film because they haven’t spoken in years.
Daughters might have made an interesting standard-process document, explaining the procedures and red tape associated with putting such an event together. However, as the girls and the dads excitedly anticipate and get ready for their big day, Patton and Rae decide to concentrate on the unforgettable faces at the center of their story. Notably, the documentary doesn’t go into detail about the charges these men faced or the nature of their daily life behind bars. All of that has already been captured in innumerable photos. The filmmakers sagaciously embrace the viewpoint that these girls know them as fathers. When we get to the dance itself, the accumulation of human detail pays off brilliantly, especially when the girls see their fathers for the first time. In fact, some are unsure if they will recognize one another. Warning: There is a plot twist. Though brief, the details along the way are poignant: Patton herself tells them that her own 80-year-old father is voluntarily shining their shoes before the dance; the fathers are practicing how to tie ties. A brief view of the fathers filing out in their orange jumpsuits follows the sight of the mountains of shoes, ties, and belts strewn across the floor following the event.
Daughters has been a longitudinal documentary from the beginning; we only learn in the last act of the movie that this dance took place in 2019 and that the girls and their fathers have since lived longer. Connections and perspectives have evolved. It’s altered sentences. After being set free, some fathers are attempting to rebuild their lives. Some have become more entrenched in the criminal justice system, with severely restricted access to their families. Though not because of any major emotional discoveries or story twists, these last scenes are perhaps the most heartbreaking because they emphasize the fundamental idea that the whole movie has been building toward: Time is our most valuable resource.
